Hive 5.7
Hive 5.7 is the seventh chapter of Hive. Skitter goes head to head Oni Lee, and with the help of allies the teleporter is forced to flee. Plot With Lung walled off in a fight with Kaiser, Skitter dismisses any intention of attempting to help in that fight, instead urging the priority to be on rescuing Newter and driving off Oni Lee. Bitch sends Judas and Angelica after Oni Lee, while she waits outside on Brutus. Oni Lee gives the dogs little attention, leaving a duplicate behind for the dogs and teleporting outside onto Brutus, behind Bitch. As he attempts to cut her throat, he is shot twice by Coil's soliders, who are set up as a sniper team on top of a nearby building. The Oni Lee who was shot disintegrates into ash, revealing itself as merely another duplicate as he had already teleported away. Oni Lee makes a move to attack the soliders, and succeeds in disarming them of their rifle and dropping it from the roof. He then attacks Skitter, who fends off the first duplicate with her baton but then has her arms grabbed from behind by a duplicate while Oni Lee teleports directly in front of her. She kicks him and Brutus bites him, but he had again managed to teleport away before and only the duplicate took the damage. Brutus has been stabbed in the eye, which prompts Skitter to pull bugs from under her costume to scout the surroundings for the teleporter's movements. She manages to detect his appearance nearby, but is only able to turn towards him before he hits her with a throwing knife that sticks in the armor of her mask. Bitch shouts that she has been stabbed in the arm, and as Skitter emerges from the ash cloud left by duplicates she sees one of the soliders being tackled from the roof, and Sundancer lying crumpled over by Labyrinth. As Oni Lee makes another appearance to throw another throwing knife that Skitter narrowly avoids, she sets bugs to bite and sting him. Upon his next teleportation, she notices that the bugs have been brought with him, allowing her to track his movements. She rejoins with Bitch and tells her this information, and helps fend off the next attack from Oni Lee as Bitch recalls her other dogs. The two move to get closer to Sundancer and Labyrinth to help protect them better, but as they move the surroundings begin to transform. The sidewalks drop out of existence and are replaced by seemingly endless pits, the buildings grow and warp into new arcitecture and the ground morphs into a surface that resembles a checkerboard. The squares of the board begin to change height, dropping or rising to varying levels. Skitter and Bitch clear the checkboard to reach unaffected ground, centered on Labyrinth and Sundancer. Skitter asks if it is Labyrinth's work, with Labyrinth responding by touching Skitter's chin, causing the terrain warping to fade from her perception. Skitter assumes this to indicate they are halluciations, but Labyrinth shakes her head in negation and she seems either unable or unwilling to talk to explain more. With the modifications to the area and Skitter able to rapidly call out his positions, Oni Lee struggles to operate as effectively as before. Bitch's dogs narrowly fail to catch him twice before he is shot in the knee. The sniper who had previously been pushed off the roof has managed to retrieve his rifle in spite of a broken leg, and Skitter aids him in hitting another shot which finally drives Oni Lee off, away from Skitter's bug control range. Skitter checks on Sundancer, who expects she will need stitches for her shoulder but says she has suffered worse injuries, and Coil's sniper who also declares he will be alright. Leaving Labyrinth to watch the sniper, Skitter commands Bitch and Sundancer to join her in helping Newter. Characters Site Navigation Category:Chapters